August 11, 2004

The Lost Boys (1987)

(Originally published in Rocky Mountain Bullhorn)

Director Joel Schumacher never met a movie he didn’t almost ruin, but even if the flashy filmmaker exhibits a persistent aversion to dramatic depth, there’s much to appreciate about his Brat Packers-as-stylish-vampires camp-a-thon The Lost Boys. Starring Jason Patric as a teenager who moves to a seaside California town and becomes part of a blood-sucking biker gang led by the superbly hammy Kiefer Sutherland and his enticing girlfriend Jami Gertz, the film features the right mix of goofy humor (courtesy of the ultimate ‘80s tag team of Corey Haim and Corey Feldman), gothic creepiness and subtext about vampirism as a twisted version of puberty. Schumacher shoots his gaudy thriller in lurid reds and blacks for maximum eroticism, but what makes the film soar is its commingling of age-old horror conventions with the overblown teenage angst pioneered by John Hughes. And did I mention both Coreys are in it?